GEORGIA CENTER FOR CHILD ADVOCACY INC
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Mission Statement
The Georgia Center for Child Advocacy’s mission is to ensure the protection, care and healing of sexually and severely physically abused children through abuse intervention, mental health treatment and prevention. Our vision is the elimination of suffering for abused children in Fulton and DeKalb Counties. Our purpose is to unite public, private and community partners to ensure the safety, health and well-being of children.
About This Cause
The GACFCA Children’s Advocacy Center is comprised of three programs serving abused children: Intervention, Treatment and Prevention. Intervention begins with a forensic interview that is video recorded and used to determine the course of the criminal investigation. We facilitate the Multidisciplinary Teams (MDT) in both Fulton and DeKalb counties, and offer trauma focused therapy treatment services to children and their non-offending family members. GACFCA also has a state wide child sexual abuse prevention program that targets adult learners and trains them in the Stewards of Children training curriculum. The GACFCA’s quality, accredited programs focus on the following core services: Multidisciplinary Team Case Review: Multidisciplinary Teams (MDT) in Fulton and DeKalb Counties are led by Georgia Center staff and consist of representatives from Law Enforcement, the Department of Family and Children’s Services (DFCS), District Attorney’s Office, local school systems and Medical & Mental Health representatives. The Georgia Center staff facilitates bi-monthly multidisciplinary case reviews and consultation with team members to insure that each case is expedited in a sensitive and timely manner. These case review meetings promote collaboration and information-sharing, so that no agency must bear the entire burden of investigating or prosecuting such complex and difficult cases. Also and more importantly, these meetings determine the type of support needed from MDT agencies, for the health and well-being of each client. Forensic Interviews: A video recorded interview provided at the request of Law Enforcement and/or the DFCS when there has been a disclosure of severe physical abuse and/or sexual abuse, or reason to believe the child has been sexually abused, based upon behaviors or medical evidence. We also provide forensic interviews to child witnesses to violence - to include homicide. This interview is conducted in a child-friendly environment by a Georgia Center for Child Advocacy clinician with specialized forensic interview training. Forensic interviews are recorded to reduce the number of times that children must disclose. This technique minimizes trauma to the child and the family, and is used in courts for prosecution. A forensic interview also provides clinicians and MDT members with the details of the trauma a child victim has experienced, as told by the child, and is the first factor used to determine if the child needs mental health treatment. Therapy: After a child has received a forensic interview or their forensic evaluation is complete, the child and non-offending family member may receive free therapy services from a trained, Georgia licensed or licensed eligible therapist at no charge to the family. The Georgia Center also offers therapy for victims of sexual abuse and a caregiver support to help caregivers and family members through the healing process. These services are limited to children who were abused in or currently reside in Fulton or DeKalb County, and for whom healing around issues related to sexual abuse is the primary concern. Pre- and post Treatment outcome measures are utilized to evaluate and improve our program on a continuous basis. GCCA uses a treatment protocol designed for the mental health treatment of traumatized children known as Trauma Focused - Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), a nationally-recognized, evidence and outcomes-based therapy program, which is widely regarded as the gold standard for therapy services with sexually abused and traumatized children. This therapy involves play therapy for the youngest of children along with educating children about how to recognize, validate and articulate their feelings. Additionally this type of therapy focuses on educating children about their safety and establishing safe boundaries as they are at higher risk of re-victimization. The focus of prevention of further harm is critical to the healing of a child that has experienced sexual abuse. The Center also involves the non-offending caregiver in the therapy process in order to help the family and the child heal. Prevention: The Georgia Center for Child Advocacy (GACFCA) is significantly addressing the epidemic of child sexual abuse through its prevention program. Since its founding in 2006, GACFCA’s Statewide Prevention Program has trained almost 41,000 adults in Georgia with a long-term goal of training 5% of adults in each County in Georgia or 490,000 adults to prevent, recognize, and react responsibly to child sexual abuse. The tipping point theory suggests that once 5% of a population has a change in behavior, the momentum for change becomes unstoppable. The Darkness to Light training curriculum, used by prevention staff, is a revolutionary sexual abuse prevention training program developed by a Charleston, SC based nonprofit, Darkness to Light (D2L) and is focused on shifting the responsibility of prevention from children to adults.